Tullow Oil plc did not encounter hydrocarbons in the Lupus exploratory well, 31/10-1, in the North Sea.

In June, Petrobras's presalt production in the Santos and Campos basins increased 6.7% from May, with a volume of 477,000 b/d, setting another monthly record.

Saipem France has contracted Sembawang Shipyard to convert two VLCCs to turret-moored FPSOs for the Total-operated Kaombo project, 150 km (93 mi) offshore Angola.

Stanford Marine was won a three-year contract for its platform supply vessel (PSV) Stanford Bateleur from Mexiship in Mexico.

Kongsberg Maritime’s “Full Picture” solution has been selected by Chinese and Korean shipbuilders for 13 advanced newbuild offshore vessels with a total value of 330 million NOK ($53 million).

Globally, the pace of deepwater drilling activity is expected to slow down slightly in the next 18 to 24 months, thanks to project delays and cost savings measures among operators. And while this has created a slight overcapacity of deepwater drilling rigs in the market, this does not mean that shipyards are stagnant. On the contrary, many yards in the Asia/Pacifc region are staying quite busy in anticipation of the upswing in exploratory drilling in late 2016 and beyond.

Dynamic positioning is a system that automatically keeps a vessel on a given position and heading by using the vessel thrusters and propellers. Today such systems are extremely accurate and applied by a wide range of vessels due to their many advantages. In the design of modern DP vessels, advanced technologies are being introduced to produce more fexible designs that are able to carry out effcient and environmentally friendly operations.

Get the latest detailed and comprehensive listing of the worldwide mobile offshore drilling units under construction.

Despite growing concerns about a possible offshore drilling rig oversupply scenario, owners continue to place shipyard orders to build more jackups, semisubmersibles, drillships, and tender-assisted rigs. Since last year's update, 103 additional rigs have been ordered. By far, the most new orders have been for jackups, which accounted for 77 of the total. Drillships were next with 18 new orders, followed by six semis and two tender-assisted rigs.